writing to get through

Shake up the vote

Voting is so easy to let slip. No one has to walk for miles or risk getting shot in the back or hung from a magnolia limb. Women aren’t parading down Broadway with signs as they once did, or being locked up with loose women from the Stingaree district to be allowed to put their X next to the name of a candidate that they still weren’t allow to run against. Corporations aren’t encouraged to issue ballot slates to their employees and bosses aren’t even allowed to discreetly put campaign placards on the desks of employees, as they did at my first job in San Diego in the ‘80s.

No voting is fairly legit here in America’s finest city and the county taxpayers spend a lot of time and effort to keep it that way. Your money. If 70 million people can take the time to vote on American Idol (Jessica from Chula Vista got robbed) can we muster at least a quarter of our population to have a say in who sits in the big chairs behind the bullet proof desks. Take a minute to locate your precinct on your smart phone and meet the grandpa who hands you your ballot and has done so for 36 years.

If that’s too hard, join the more than 700,000 registered voters who use mail-in ballots. If it’s sitting on your dresser with the cable bill, fill it out, slap a stamp on it and slip it down a mail chute.

We know that lots of you will vote the way your husbands or wives tell you, or for the candidate your friends like or against the one they hate. We know that the issues are difficult to figure out sometimes, and the ads make it even more confusing. Yes, it might take a little thought or a little questioning or a little reasoning. Or it might be totally random or by alphabetical listing or by party. Or for only men or only women or only gay candidates or only Hispanics. Never for incumbents. Only names you recognize. Whatever. It’s a free country. That’s the point.

Take the time to vote on Tuesday, June 5, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. With all the hype being directed to “likely voters,” wouldn’t it be fun to shake it up?